knew nothing about it. Mdlle. R----, who was
equally ignorant on the subject, had represented her to me as a virgin,
and so I thought her for two long hours in which I strove with might and
main to break the charm, or rather open the shell. All my efforts were in
vain. I was exhausted at last, and I wanted to see in what the obstacle
consisted. I put her in the proper position, and armed with a candle I
began my scrutiny. I found a fleshy membrane pierced by so small a hole
that large pin's head could scarcely have gone through. Victorine
encouraged me to force a passage with my little finger, but in vain I
tried to pierce this wall, which nature had made impassable by all
ordinary means. I was tempted to see what I could do with a bistoury, and
the girl wanted me to try, but I was afraid of the haemorrhage which
might have been dangerous, and I wisely refrained.
Poor Victorine, condemned to die a maid, unless some clever surgeon
performed the same operation that was undergone by Mdlle. Cheruffini
shortly after M. Lepri married her, wept when I said,--
"My dear child, your little Hymen defies the most vigorous lover to enter
his temple."
But I consoled her by saying that a good surgeon could easily make a
perfect woman of her.
In the morning I told Madame R---- of the case.
She laughed and said,--
"It may prove a happy accident for Victorine; it may make her fortune."
A few years after the Count of Padua had her operated on, and made her
fortune. When I came back from Spain I found that she was with child, so
that I could not exact the due reward for all the trouble I had taken
with her.
Early in the morning on Maunday Thursday they told me that Moses and Leah
wanted to see me. I had not expected to see them, but I welcomed them
warmly. Throughout Holy Week the Jews dared not shew themselves in the
streets of Turin, and I advised them to stay with me till the Saturday.
Moses began to try and get me to purchase a ring from him, and I judged
from that that I should not have to press them very much.
"I can only buy this ring from Leah's hands," said I.
He grinned, thinking doubtless that I intended to make her a present of
it, but I was resolved to disappoint him. I gave them a magnificent
dinner and supper, and in the evening they were shewn a double-bedded
room not far from mine. I might have put them in different rooms, and
Leah in a room adjoining mine, which would have facilitated any nocturnal
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